Beam management

ABSTRACT

Layer 2 structures and procedures may be used for beam management in new radio networks. In a first example, a new radio layer 2 structure may be used to facilitate beam management at the medium access control sublayer. In a second example, new radio feedback mechanisms may be signaled between peer medium access control entities and used to assist with beam management. In a third example, new radio beam management procedures may include new radio beam training, new radio beam alignment, new radio beam tracking, or new radio beam configuration. In a fourth example, new radio connection control procedure may include new radio initial access or new radio mobility management.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the National Stage Application of InternationalPatent Application No. PCT/US2017/046547 filed Aug. 11, 2017, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/373,617“BEAM MANAGEMENT” filed Aug. 11, 2016, the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

RRC Protocol States

In LTE, a terminal may be in different states, as shown in FIG. 1,RRC_CONNECTED and RRC_IDLE. See 3GPP TS 36.331, Radio Resource Control(RRC); Protocol specification (Release 13), V13.0.0.

In RRC_CONNECTED, there is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) context. Thecell to which the User Equipment (UE) belongs is known and an identityof the UE, the Cell Radio-Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI), usedfor signaling purposes between the UE and the network, has beenconfigured. RRC_CONNECTED is intended for data transfer to or from theUE.

In RRC_IDLE, there is no RRC context in the Radio Access Network (RAN)and the UE does not belong to a specific cell. No data transfer may takeplace in RRC_IDLE. A UE in RRC_IDLE monitors a Paging channel to detectincoming calls and changes to the system information. DiscontinuousReception (DRX) is used in to conserve UE power. When moving toRRC_CONNECTED the RRC context needs to be established in both the RANand the UE.

System Information

System Information (SI) is the information broadcast by the EvolvedUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) that needs to beacquired by the UE to be able to access and operate within the network.SI is divided into the MasterinformationBlock (MIB) and a number ofSystemInformationBlocks (SIBs). A high level description of the MIB andSIBs is provided in 3GPP TS 36.300. Detailed descriptions are availablein 3GPP TS 36.331.

TABLE 1 System Information Information Block Description MIB Defines themost essential physical layer information of the cell required toreceive further system information SIB1 Contains information relevantwhen evaluating if a UE is allowed to access a cell and defines thescheduling of other system information SIB2 Radio resource configurationinformation that is common for all UEs SIB3 Cell re-selectioninformation common for intra-frequency, inter-frequency and/or inter-RATcell re-selection (i.e. applicable for more than one type of cell re-selection but not necessarily all) as well as intra-frequency cellre-selection information other than neighbouring cell related SIB4Neighbouring cell related information relevant only for intra-frequencycell re- selection SIB5 Information relevant only for inter-frequencycell re-selection i.e. information about other E UTRA frequencies andinter-frequency neighbouring cells relevant for cell re-selection SIB6Information relevant only for inter-RAT cell re-selection i.e.information about UTRA frequencies and UTRA neighbouring cells relevantfor cell re-selection SIB7 Information relevant only for inter-RAT cellre-selection i.e. information about GERAN frequencies relevant for cellre-selection SIB8 Information relevant only for inter-RAT cellre-selection i.e. information about CDMA2000 frequencies and CDMA2000neighbouring cells relevant for cell re- selection SIB9 Home eNB name(HNB Name) SIB10 Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) primarynotification SIB11 ETWS secondary notification SIB12 Commercial MobileAlert System (CMAS) notification SIB13 Information required to acquirethe MBMS control information associated with one or more MBSFN areasSIB14 Extended Access Barring (EAB) parameters SIB15 MBMS Service AreaIdentities (SAI) of the current and/or neighbouring carrier frequenciesSIB16 Information related to GPS time and Coordinated Universal Time(UTC) SIB17 Information relevant for traffic steering between E-UTRANand WLAN SIB18 Indicates E-UTRAN supports the Sidelink UE informationprocedure and may contain sidelink communication related resourceconfiguration information SIB19 Indicates E-UTRAN supports the sidelinkUE information procedure and may contain sidelink discovery relatedresource configuration information SIB20 Contains the informationrequired to acquire the control information associated transmission ofMBMS using Single Cell-Point to Multi-point (SC-PTM)

The UE applies the system information acquisition procedure described in3GPP TS 36.331 to acquire the Access Stratum (AS) and Non-access Stratum(NAS) related system information that is broadcasted by the E-UTRAN. Theprocedure applies to UEs in RRC_IDLE and UEs in RRC_CONNECTED. See FIG.2.

The UE applies the system information acquisition procedure for thefollowing: 1) upon selecting (e.g. upon power on) and upon re-selectinga cell; 2) after handover completion; 3) after entering E-UTRA fromanother Radio Access Technology (RAT); 4) upon return from out ofcoverage; 5) upon receiving a notification that the System Informationhas changed; 6) upon receiving an indication about the presence of anETWS notification, a CMAS notification or a notification that EABparameters have changed; 7) upon receiving a request from CDMA2000 upperlayers; and 8) upon exceeding the maximum validity duration.

Connection Mobility Control (CMC)

Connection mobility control (CMC), as described in 3GPP 36.30, isconcerned with the management of radio resources in connection with idleor connected mode mobility. In idle mode, the cell reselectionalgorithms are controlled by setting of parameters (thresholds andhysteresis values) that define the best cell or determine when the UEshould select a new cell. Also, E-UTRAN broadcasts parameters thatconfigure the UE measurement and reporting procedures. In connectedmode, the mobility of radio connections has to be supported. Handoverdecisions may be based on UE and eNB measurements. In addition, handoverdecisions may take other inputs, such as neighbor cell load, trafficdistribution, transport and hardware resources and Operator definedpolicies into account. CMC is located in the eNB.

Layer 2 Structure

Layer 2 is split into the following sublayers: Medium Access Control(MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol(PDCP) as described in 3GPP 36.300. The PDCP/RLC/MAC architecture forthe downlink and uplink are shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, respectively.

Physical Layer Measurements

Physical layer measurements are defined in 3GPP TS 36.300 as shownbelow.

The physical layer measurements to support mobility are classified as:

-   -   within E-UTRAN (intra-frequency, inter-frequency);    -   between E-UTRAN and GERAN/UTRAN (inter-RAT);    -   between E-UTRAN and non-3GPP RAT (Inter 3GPP access system        mobility).

For measurements within E-UTRAN two basic UE measurement quantitiesshall be supported:

-   -   Reference signal received power (RSRP);    -   Reference signal received quality (RSRQ).

In addition, the following UE measurement quantity may be supported:

-   -   Received signal strength indicator (RSSI);    -   Reference signal to noise and interference ratio (RS-SINR).

RSRP measurement is based on the following signals:

-   -   Cell-specific reference signals; or    -   CSI reference signals in configured discovery signals.        RSRP Measurement Report Mapping

RSRP measurement report mapping is defined in 3GPP TS 36.133 as shownbelow. The reporting range of RSRP is defined from −140 dBm to −44 dBmwith 1 dB resolution. The mapping of measured quantity is defined inTable 2. The range in the signaling may be larger than the guaranteedaccuracy range.

TABLE 2 RSRP Measurement Report Mapping Reported value Measured quantityvalue Unit RSRP_00 RSRP < −140 dBm RSRP_01 −140 ≤ RSRP < −139 dBmRSRP_02 −139 ≤ RSRP < −138 dBm . . . . . . . . . RSRP_95 −46 ≤ RSRP <−45 dBm RSRP_96 −45 ≤ RSRP < −44 dBm RSRP_97 −44 ≤ RSRP dBmMulti-Antenna Transmission

Multi-antenna transmission in LTE can be described as a mapping from theoutput of the data modulation to the different antenna ports as shown inFIG. 5. The input to the antenna mapping consists of the modulationsymbols (QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM) corresponding to one or two transportblocks. The output of the antenna mapping is a set of symbols for eachantenna port. The symbols of each antenna port are subsequently appliedto the OFDM modulator—that is, mapped to the basic OFDM time—frequencygrid corresponding to that antenna port.

The different multi-antenna transmission schemes correspond to differentso-called transmission modes. There are ten different transmission modesdefined for LTE. They differ in terms of the specific structure of theantenna mapping, but also in terms of what reference signals are assumedto be used for demodulation (cell-specific reference signals ordemodulation reference signals respectively) and the type of CSIfeedback they rely on.

The list below summarizes the transmission modes defined for LTE and theassociated multi-antenna transmission schemes.

-   -   Transmission mode 1: Single-antenna transmission.    -   Transmission mode 2: Transmit diversity.    -   Transmission mode 3: Open-loop codebook-based precoding in the        case of more than one layer, transmit diversity in the case of        rank-one transmission.    -   Transmission mode 4: Closed-loop codebook-based precoding.    -   Transmission mode 5: Multi-user-MIMO version of transmission        mode 4.    -   Transmission mode 6: Special case of closed-loop codebook-based        precoding limited to single layer transmission.    -   Transmission mode 7: Release-8 non-codebook-based precoding        supporting only single-layer transmission.    -   Transmission mode 8: Release-9 non-codebook-based precoding        supporting up to two layers.    -   Transmission mode 9: Release-10 non-codebook-based precoding        supporting up to eight layers.    -   Transmission mode 10: Release 11 Extension of transmission mode        9 for enhanced support of different means of downlink        multi-point coordination and transmission, also referred to as        CoMP.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein is a L2 structure and procedures that may be used forbeam management in new radio (NR) networks. In a first example, an NR L2structure may be used to facilitate beam management at the MAC sublayer.In a second example, NR feedback mechanisms may be signaled between peerMAC entities and used to assist with beam management. In a thirdexample, NR Beam Management procedures may include NR Beam Training, NRBeam Alignment, NR Beam Tracking, or NR Beam Configuration. In a fourthexample, NR Connection Control Procedure may include NR Initial Accessor NR Mobility Management.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore,the claimed subject matter is not constrained to limitations that solveany or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description,given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary RRC Protocol State Machine;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary System Information AcquisitionProcedure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary Layer 2 Structure for DL;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary Layer 2 Structure for UL;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary Structure for LTE DL Multi-AntennaTransmission;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary Cell Coverage with Sector Beams andMultiple High Gain Narrow Beams;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary Virtual Cell;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary Network Slicing Concept;

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary NR Virtual Cell;

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary UE Mobility in NR Virtual Cell;

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary NR Layer 2 Structure for DL BeamAggregation;

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary NR Layer 2 Structure for UL BeamAggregation;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary NR Layer 2 Structure for DL BeamAggregation with Carrier Aggregation Configured;

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary NR Layer 2 Structure for UL BeamAggregation with Carrier Aggregation Configured;

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary NR Beam Measurement Report MAC CE;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary Beam Training Command MAC CE;

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary Beam Alignment Command MAC CE;

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary Beam Tracking Command MAC CE;

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary NR Beam Addition/Release Command MACCE;

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamTraining;

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamAlignment;

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamTracking;

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamConfiguration (UE Controlled);

FIG. 24 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamConfiguration (NW Controlled);

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR InitialAccess (UE Controlled);

FIG. 26 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NW controlledinitial access;

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR MobilityManagement (UE Controlled);

FIG. 28 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR MobilityManagement (NW Controlled);

FIG. 29A illustrates an example communications system 100 in which themethods and apparatuses described and claimed herein associated withbeam management;

FIG. 29B is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with the beam managementillustrated herein;

FIG. 29C is a system diagram of the RAN 103 and the core network 106according to beam management as discussed herein;

FIG. 29D is a system diagram of the RAN 104 and the core network 107according to beam management as discussed herein;

FIG. 29E is a system diagram of the RAN 105 and the core network 109which may be associated with beam management as discussed herein;

FIG. 29F is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system 90 in whichone or more apparatuses of the communications networks illustrated inFIGS. 29A, 29C, 29D, and 29E may be associated with beam management asdiscussed herein; and

FIG. 30 illustrates an exemplary display (e.g., graphical userinterface) that may be generated based on the methods and systemsdiscussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Disclosed herein are L2 structures and procedures that may be used forbeam management of a wireless network. A L2 Structure may be used tofacilitate beam management at the medium access control (MAC) sublayer.

Disclosed are feedback mechanisms that may be signaled between peer MACentities and used to assist with beam management. In an example, NR beammeasurement report MAC control element (CE) may be used to signal beammeasurements between peer MAC entities. In another example, a set of MACCEs may be used to configure and control the disclosed NR BeamManagement procedures.

In addition, disclosed is a suite of exemplary beam managementprocedures. An NR Beam Training Procedure may be used to discover andmeasure beams transmitted by the UE or Network (NW) nodes. An NR BeamAlignment Procedure may be used to refine the alignment of a beam, whichmay include adjustments to the beam width, beam direction, etc. An NRBeam Tracking Procedure may be used to maintain the alignment of beamsused for communication between a UE and NW node. An NR BeamConfiguration Procedure may be used to configure or reconfigure the setof serving beam(s) used for communication between a UE and NW node.

Furthermore, disclosed herein is a suite of NR Connection Controlprocedures. An NR Initial Access Procedure may be used to performinitial access in NR beam centric networks. An NR Mobility ManagementProcedure may be used to perform mobility management in NR beam centricnetworks.

New Radio (NR) Access Technology may be used to meet a broad range ofuse cases including enhanced mobile broadband, massive MTC, and criticalMTC, among other things. The NR may consider frequencies of 100 GHz. Tocompensate for the increased path loss in High Frequency NR systems(HF-NR), beamforming may be used. High gain beams may be used to providecomprehensive coverage in a cell. The narrow beamwidths make the beamsmore susceptible to blockage that may result not only from mobility, butalso from changes in the orientation of the UE or changes in the localenvironment. Mechanisms like the RRC handover procedure that are used tomanage mobility in LTE networks require a lot of signaling overhead andincur undesired latency in handling fast beam switching. Therefore,there is a need for a layer 2 (L2) based mechanism that may be used toperform beam management in wireless networks, such as NR networks.

Beam Forming Impacts—There are effects of higher frequencies on coverageand the compensation of path loss by using multiple narrow beams fordownlink common channels. This is illustrated in FIG. 6. In lowerfrequency bands (e.g., current LTE bands<6 GHz) the required cellcoverage may be provided by forming a wide sector beam for transmittingdownlink common channels. However, utilizing wide sector beam on higherfrequencies (e.g., >>6 GHz) the cell coverage is reduced with sameantenna gain. Thus, in order to provide required cell coverage on higherfrequency bands, higher antenna gain is needed to compensate theincreased path loss. To increase the antenna gain over a wide sectorbeam, larger antenna arrays (number of antenna elements ranging fromtens to hundreds) are used to form high gain beams.

As a consequence the high gain beams are narrow compared to a widesector beam so multiple beams for transmitting downlink common channelsare needed to cover the required cell area. The number of concurrenthigh gain beams that access point is able to form may be limited by thecost and complexity of the utilized transceiver architecture. Inpractice, on higher frequencies, the number of concurrent high gainbeams is much less than the total number of beams required for coveringthe cell area. In other words, the access point is able to cover onlypart of the cell area by using a subset of beams at any given time.

Virtual Cell—A virtual cell may be defined as multiple TRPs(Transmission Reception Points) with a same cell ID under the control ofa central unit, as shown in FIG. 7. Common information or cell-levelinformation is transmitted in a large cell area and dedicated data istransmitted from adjacent TRPs near the UE with realization of CP/UPsplit.

IMT for 2020 and beyond is envisaged to expand and support diversefamilies of usage scenarios and applications that will continue beyondthe current IMT. See ITU-R M.2083-0, IMT Vision—“Framework and overallobjectives of the future development of IMT for 2020 and beyond.”Furthermore, a broad variety of capabilities would be tightly coupledwith these intended different usage scenarios and applications for IMTfor 2020 and beyond.

The families of usage scenarios for IMT for 2020 and beyond include:

eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband)

-   -   Macro and small cells    -   1 ms Latency (air interface)    -   Spectrum allocated at WRC-15 may lead up to 8 Gbps of additional        throughput    -   Support for high mobility

URLLC (Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications)

-   -   Low to medium data rates (50 kbps˜10 Mbps)    -   <1 ms air interface latency    -   99.999% reliability and availability    -   Low connection establishment latency    -   0-500 km/h mobility

mMTC (massive Machine Type Communications)

-   -   Low data rate (1˜100 kbps)    -   High density of devices (up to 200,000/km2)    -   Latency: seconds to hours    -   Low power: up to 15 years battery autonomy    -   Asynchronous access

Network Operation

-   -   Network Operation addresses the subjects such as Network        Slicing, Routing, Migration and Interworking, Energy Saving,        etc.        NextGen Network Requirements

3GPP TR 38.913 Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next GenerationAccess Technologies; (Release 14), V0.3.0 defines scenarios andrequirements for next generation access technologies. The KeyPerformance Indicators (KPIs) for eMBB, URLLC and mMTC devices aresummarized in Table 3.

TABLE 3 KPIs for eMBB, URLLC and mMTC Devices Device KPI DescriptionRequirement eMBB Peak data Peak data rate is the highest theoreticaldata rate which 20 Gbps for rate is the received data bits assumingerror-free conditions downlink and assignable to a single mobilestation, when all 10 Gbps for assignable radio resources for thecorresponding link uplink direction are utilized (i.e., excluding radioresources that are used for physical layer synchronization, referencesignals or pilots, guard bands and guard times). Mobility Mobilityinterruption time means the shortest time 0 ms for intra- interruptionduration supported by the system during which a user system timeterminal cannot exchange user plane packets with any mobility basestation during transitions. Data Plane For eMBB value, the evaluationneeds to consider all 4 ms for UL, Latency typical delays associatedwith the transfer of the data and 4 ms for packets in an efficient way(e.g. applicable procedural DL delay when resources are notpre-allocated, averaged HARQ retransmission delay, impacts of networkarchitecture). URLLC Control Control plane latency refers to the time tomove from a 10 ms Plane battery efficient state (e.g., IDLE) to start ofLatency continuous data transfer (e.g., ACTIVE). Data Plane For URLLCthe target for user plane latency for UL 0.5 ms Latency and DL.Furthermore, if possible, the latency should also be low enough tosupport the use of the next generation access technologies as a wirelesstransport technology that can be used within the next generation accessarchitecture. Reliability Reliability can be evaluated by the successprobability 1-10⁻⁵ of transmitting X bytes⁽¹⁾ within 1 ms, which is thewithin 1 ms. time it takes to deliver a small data packet from the radioprotocol layer 2/3 SDU ingress point to the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDUpoint of the radio interface, at a certain channel quality (e.g.,coverage-edge). NOTE1: Specific value for X is FFS. mMTC Coverage“Maximum coupling loss” (MCL) in uplink and 164 dB downlink betweendevice and Base Station site (antenna connector(s)) for a data rate of[X bps], where the data rate is observed at the egress/ingress point ofthe radio protocol stack in uplink and downlink. UE Battery UserEquipment (UE) battery life can be evaluated by 15 years Life thebattery life of the UE without recharge. For mMTC, UE battery life inextreme coverage shall be based on the activity of mobile originateddata transfer consisting of [200 bytes] Uplink (UL) per day followed by[20 bytes] Downlink (DL) from Maximum Coupling Loss (MCL) of [tbd] dB,assuming a stored energy capacity of [5 Wh]. Connection Connectiondensity refers to total number of devices 10⁶ devices/km² Densityfulfilling specific Quality of Service (QoS) per unit area (per km²).QoS definition should take into account the amount of data or accessrequest generated within a time t_gen that can be sent or receivedwithin a given time, t_sendrx, with x % probability.

Network Slicing—FIG. 8 provides a high level illustration of the networkslicing concept. A network slice is composed of a collection of logicalnetwork functions that supports the communication service requirementsof particular use case(s). It shall be possible to direct terminals toselected slices in a way that fulfil operator or user needs, e.g. basedon subscription or terminal type. The network slicing primarily targetsa partition of the core network, but it is not excluded that RadioAccess Network (RAN) may need specific functionality to support multipleslices or even partitioning of resources for different network slices.See 3GPP TR 22.891, Feasibility Study on New Services and MarketsTechnology Enablers (SMARTER); Stage 1 (Release 14), V1.3.2.

An exemplary NR deployment scenario is shown in FIG. 9. In thisdeployment, gNB 201 controls multiple Transmission and Reception Points(TRPs). The TRPs under control of gNB 201 form a virtual cell. TRPs(e.g., TRP 202, TRP 203, TRP 204) may provide coverage using multiplebeams. The radiation patterns of the beams from one or more TRPs mayoverlap to provide full coverage of the virtual cell area. UE 205 maysupport transmission and reception using multiple beams. UE 205 may alsosupport inter-TRP transmission/reception, where the beams used forcommunication with gNB 201 are from different TRPs within the virtualcell.

Beams 209 (e.g., Beam A or Beam B of UE 205), beams 206 (e.g., Beam A,Beam B, or Beam C of TRP 202), beams 207 (e.g., Beam A, Beam B, or BeamC of TRP 203), or beams 208 (e.g., Beam A, Beam B, or Beam C of TRP 204)that are used for communication may vary as UE 205 moves within thecoverage area of the virtual cell. For high frequency scenarios, e.g.mmW, beams 206, 207, 208, or 209 that may be used may also be impactedby changes in the local environment; e.g. people/objects moving, changesin the orientation of the UE, etc.

To support beam level mobility in NR networks, the NR beam managementprocedures may distinguish types of beams, such as serving beam,candidate beam, or detected beam. A serving beam may be a beam used forcommunication between UE 209 and TRP/gNB (e.g., TRP 202/gNB 201).Determination of the serving beam(s) may be based on UE 209 and networkmeasurements. In addition, other inputs such as TRP load, trafficdistribution, transport and hardware resources and operator definedpolicies may be taken into account. UE 205 may monitor a serving beamfor scheduling assignments/grants, may perform measurements to ensurethe beam continues to meet the serving beam criteria, or may reportmeasurements to ensure the beam continues to meet the serving beamcriteria, among other things. The serving beam criteria serving beamcriteria may be defined as a measurement quantity; e.g. RSRP, RSRQ, RSSIor SINR, being above a configured threshold.

A candidate beam may be a beam that may be used as a communication beam(e.g., meets the serving beam criteria), but has not been configured asa serving beam. UE 205 performs and may report measurements for acandidate beam, but does not monitor the beam for schedulingassignments/grants.

A detected beam may be a beam that has been measured by UE 205, but doesnot meet the serving beam criteria. UE 205 may perform and may reportmeasurements for a detected beam, but does not monitor the beam forscheduling assignments or grants.

In the example shown in FIG. 9, the serving beams are Beam B of TRP 202(i.e., beam B of beams 206), which is paired with Beam A of UE 205(i.e., beam A of beams 209), and Beam A of TRP 203 (i.e., beam A ofbeams 207), which is paired with beam B of UE 205 (i.e., beam B of beams209). The candidate beams are Beam C of TRP 202 and Beam B of TRP 203;and the detected beams are Beam A of TRP 202 and Beam C of TRP 203.

After UE 205 moves as shown in FIG. 10, the serving beams are Beam B ofTRP 203, which is paired with Beam A of UE 205, and Beam C of TRP 203,which is paired with beam B of UE 205. The candidate beam is Beam A ofTRP 203. There aren't any detected beams in this scenario.

NR Layer 2 Structure is discussed below. To facilitate beam managementat the MAC sublayer, the multi-beam nature of the physical layer isexposed to the MAC sublayer. FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary NR Layer 2Structure for DL Beam Aggregation. In one example, one HARQ entity(e.g., HARQ 221) is required per beam (e.g., beam 222) and the mappingof logical channels onto a beam is performed by the MAC sublayer (e.g.,MAC sublayer 220). This may be referred to as beam aggregation. The NRL2 structure for DL and UL beam aggregation is shown in FIG. 11 and FIG.12 respectively. It should be noted that conventional systems, such asthe apparatus FIG. 3 or FIG. 4, do not consider the concept of a beam,as disclosed herein. For example, in FIG. 11-FIG. 14, the multi-beamnature of the physical layer for NR is exposed to MAC sublayer 220.Making the beams visible to the MAC 220 enables beam level aggregation.This also allows the beams to be scheduled independently by the MACscheduler 226.

The MAC sublayer performs the mapping between logical channels (e.g.,logical channel 224) and transport channels (e.g., transport channel225—DL-SCH). In the disclosed NR L2 structure, MAC sublayer 220 alsoperforms the mapping to the serving beam(s). In the case wheretransmission on a single serving beam is scheduled, a single transportblock is generated and mapped to the Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH) onthe scheduled serving beam. In cases where two or more serving beams arescheduled, MAC sublayer 220 generates multiple transport blocks, one foreach scheduled serving beam. When generating the transport block for agiven DL-SCH/beam, MAC entity 220 may multiplex radio link controlprotocol data units (RLC PDUs) from one or more logical channels (e.g.,logical channel 224). Multiplexing and beam mapping may be done by block223. For FIG. 11 (and FIG. 12-FIG. 14), the different parallelograms formultiplexing and beam mapping may correspond to the multiplexing andbeam mapping for different UEs. There may be more than one UE scheduledon a given beam, so that is why Beam_(u), for example, may be shownmultiple times.

As discussed herein, the multi-beam nature of the physical layer may beexposed to the multiplexing function, thereby allowing the mapping of alogical channel to a specific beam. How the mapping is performed may bebased on information, such as UE measurements and network measurements.In addition, other information, such as TRP load, traffic distribution,transport and hardware resources, or Operator defined policies may betaken into account.

For example, consider the scenario where TRP 199 provides coverage withwide sector beams and multiple high gain narrow beams as shown in FIG.6. When a UE is within the coverage area of the wide sector beam, it maybe advantageous to map RLC PDUs for logical channels requiring highreliability/low latency; e.g. control signaling, to the sector beam,since transmissions via the sector beam may be less susceptible toblockage due to the wider beam width. Alternatively, when the UE is nearthe cell edge and being covered by multiple high gain narrow beams, itmay be advantageous to map RLC PDUs that require high reliability/lowlatency to the “best beam”, where determination of the “best beam” maybe based on the NR feedback for beam management described herein (e.g.,NR-RSRP). The “best beam” may be considered the beam with the highestRSRP (e.g., NR-RSRP).

With reference to FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the multi-beam architecturenature of the physical layer is exposed to the MAC layer for which oneHARQ entity is required per pair of beam and component carrier (beam i,CC j) where the coverage area that corresponds to the group of servingcells is modeled as n beams and m CCs.

The scheduler (e.g., in the network—scheduler 241) of the group ofserving cells (carrier aggregation model) performs scheduling acrosspairs of component carriers and beams [(beam1, CC1), . . . (beam i,CCj), (beam n, CCm) that corresponds to the coverage area of the groupof serving cells modeled as n beams and m CCs. The scheduler may becentralized in a central unit (CU) or distributed between a central unitand distributed unit (DU). Mapping between CU/DUs and gNB/TRPs may beimplementation or deployment specific. For a given deployment, thescheduler will be centralized or distributed. Alternatively, byspecification, gNB may correspond to CU and DU may correspond to a TRPor a subset of the set of TRPs within the CU. For example, gNB iscentralized and the TRPs are distributed. The scheduler may be targetedto the gNB which is the CU or the TRPs which are the DUs.

NR transmission modes may be defined and specified in association withbeam centric architecture. UE 205 may be configured statically or semistatically (e.g., RRC signaling) with a transmission mode by the NW node(e.g., gNB 201 or TRP 202), for e.g. in accordance with capabilityexchange of UE 205 with the NW node. For each transmission time interval(TTI), the physical layer of UE 205 may determine the choice of thetransmission parameters allowed by the configured transmission mode.This determination may be transparent to the MAC layer. For example, UE205 may perform measurements and report them to NW node 190. Themeasurements report may include a precoder matrix indicator and a rankindicator which may be used by NW node 190 (e.g., the gNB) to determinethe transmission mode. The different transmission modes correspond tothe use of different multi-antenna transmission schemes, which are usedto accomplish what is referred to as multi-layer transmission. Whetherto use one layer over another layer for a transmission may be dependenton the channel conditions or the throughput required by the service. Forexample, Transmission Mode 9, which supports up to 8 layers, may be usedfor high data rate services when channel conditions are very good, whileTransmission Mode 2 (Transmit Diversity) may be used when a user is atthe cell edge and channel conditions are poor.

In both uplink and downlink, there is one independent hybrid-ARQ entityper pair (beam i, CC j) and one transport block is generated per TTI perpair (beam i, CC j) in the absence of spatial multiplexing. Eachtransport block and its potential HARQ retransmissions are mapped to asingle pair (beam i, CC j).

With reference to FIG. 14, in the UL, the MAC of UE 205 may performlogical channel prioritization and scheduling (possibly based on grantfrom gNB 201 in the case of non-grant-less transmission). The MAC of UE205 multiplexer may perform logical channels multiplexing and distributethe multiplexed data across the HARQ entity associated with each pair(beam i, CC j) based on the grant received on each CC j in the case ofnon-grant-less transmission. UE 205 may autonomously make the decisionin a case of UL grant-less transmission. In an example, for URLLCservices, UE 205 may not be able to wait until a grant was received dueto the latency requirements. UE 205 may choose a beam/CC based onmetrics it may have like the BLER for past transmissions or possiblyfeedback from gNB 201.

NR feedback for beam management is disclosed herein. Feedback signaledbetween the peer MAC entities may be used to assist with beam management(e.g., beam selection, beam training, determination of the servingbeam(s), etc). The feedback may be based on beam measurements performedby the physical layer, such as RSRP or RSRQ, where the measurementquantities NR-RSRP and NR-RSRQ are based on Beam Training ReferenceSignals (BT-RS). A node may measure and provide feedback for servingbeam(s), candidate beam(s), or detected beam(s), where each beam may bedefined by a Beam Index (e.g., beam Id). Beam Training Reference Signalsare signals occupying specific time-frequency resources that are used toidentify the beam and are used by the beam management procedures. TheBT-RSs may be measured by the receiving node and decisions may be madebased off the results of these measurements. A beam Id may be aconstruct that uniquely identifies the beam. It may be an explicit Id oran index that is used to “look up” the beam identity and associatedcharacteristics (e.g. reference signal structure). The beam Id may be anumerical value that corresponds to the identity of the beam.

The feedback signaled between the MAC entities may be used to enable UEcontrolled or NW controlled beam management. In the case of UEcontrolled beam management, the MAC entity in UE 205 may make decisionsabout serving/candidate beams based on physical layer beam measurementsand inform the peer MAC entity in gNB 201 (e.g., NW node) of thesedecisions. Alternatively, in the case of NW controlled beam management,UE 205 may report metrics based on physical layer beam measurements tothe MAC entity in gNB 201. The MAC entity in the gNB 201 would then makedecisions about serving/candidate beams and inform the peer MAC entityin UE 205 of these decisions. A hybrid approach where the decisions canbe made at either node (e.g., NW node or UE node) is also possible.

Herein, mechanisms are defined for beam measurement reporting and beammanagement commands (e.g., beam measurement, beam training command, abeam alignment command, a beam tracking command, a beam additioncommand, or a beam release command) that are used to enable the NR beammanagement procedures.

NR beam measurement reporting is discussed below (e.g., Table 4, FIG.20-FIG. 28). A measuring node (e.g., NW node or UE node) may beconfigured with a reporting configuration that includes one or more ofthe following: 1) reporting criterion or 2) reporting format. ReportingCriterion: Criterion that triggers the measuring node to send a reportto the peer MAC entity, where the reports may be configured forperiodical or event based reporting. Reporting Format: The quantities ormetrics that are included in a report and associated information, suchas the number of beams to report or type of beams to report (serving,candidate, or detected beams), among other things.

Events used to trigger reporting may be based on physical layermeasurements, in/out-of-sync transitions, exceeding a specified blockerror rate (BLER) threshold, Radio Link Failure (RLF) detection, changesin the mobility state as specified in 3GPP TS 36.304, addition orremoval of Radio Bearers (RBs), requests from the peer MAC entity, etc.An exemplary set of events that may be used to trigger beam measurementreporting is provided in Table 4. The events of Table 4 may also be usedto trigger the transmission of other beam management commands. Theseevents are beam based events. For LTE, the events were cell based. Thetriggering of these events helps to enable mobility management at thebeam level.

TABLE 4 Exemplary Set of Events Used to Trigger NR Beam MeasurementReporting Event Description NR-D1 The number of serving beams is greaterthan a threshold. NR-D2 The number of serving beams is less than athreshold. NR-D3 The number of candidate beams is greater than athreshold. NR-D4 The number of candidate beams is less than a threshold.NR-D5 One or more serving beams no longer meet the serving beamcriteria. NR-D6 One or more candidate beams no longer meet the servingbeam criteria. NR-D7 One or more detected beams meet the serving beamcriteria. NR-D8 Candidate beam becomes offset better than a servingbeam. NR-D9 Serving beam becomes worse than threshold 1 and candidatebeam becomes better than threshold 2.

With further reference to Table 4, in an example with regard to NR-D8,if the candidate beam has a larger offset (e.g., threshold offset) power(e.g., RSRP) than the serving beam, then an event may be triggered, suchas releasing the serving beam and adding the candidate beam. In anexample, with regard to NR-D9, if the serving beam becomes worse than afirst threshold (e.g., threshold 1=−60 dbm) and candidate beam becomesbetter than a second threshold (e.g., threshold 2=−50 dbm) then an eventmay be triggered, such as releasing the serving beam and adding thecandidate beam. The use of NR-D8 and NR-D9 may help reduce excessiveoccurrence of the events based on insignificant fluctuations.

MAC control elements (CEs) may be used to signal the beam measurementsbetween peer MAC entities or other instructions (e.g., NR Beam TrainingCommand). An exemplary NR Beam Measurement Report MAC CE is shown inFIG. 15. The NR Beam Measurement Report MAC CE may be identified by aMAC protocol data unit (PDU) subheader with logical channel ID (LCID) asspecified in Table 5 or Table 6, for example. There are no such formatsdefined for MAC CEs in LTE. These formats are part of the enablingdetails of the beam management disclosed herein.

The disclosed Beam Measurement MAC CE has a variable size, allowing itto include measurement reports for a specified maximum number of beams,defined as M. Alternatively, the MAC CE may be defined with a fixed sizeand padding may be used when the number of beams for which measurementsare reported is less than M.

For each beam for which measurements are reported, the beam Id andcorresponding measurement quantity e.g. NR-RSRP value, are included inthe report. The report may be organized such that the beams are listedaccording to beam Id, NR-RSRP, or beam type (e.g., beams with lowestbeam Id reported first, strongest beams reported first, serving beamsreported first, etc.)

Which beams to include in the report may be dependent on the beam Id,the beam type, or the measurement result. For example, the measuringnode may be configured with a set of beam Id's for which it shouldreport measurements. Alternatively, the measuring node may be configuredto report beams based on the beam type (e.g., serving beams, candidatebeams, or detected beams). An alternate example of the Beam MeasurementMAC CE may include a Beam Type field consisting on m bits, that is usedto indicate the beam type of a reported beam (e.g. if m=2, then00=Serving Beam, 01=Candidate Beam, 02=Detected Beam). The format withfewer bits; i.e. without the Beam Type field, may be preferred in someimplementations. A threshold that is compared with the measurementquantity may also be used to determine which beams should be included inthe report.

TABLE 5 Values of LCID for DL-SCH Index LCID values 00000 CCCH00001-01010 Identity of the logical channel 01011-10010 Reserved 10011NR Beam Measurement 10100 NR Beam Training Command 10101 NR BeamAlignment Command 10110 NR Beam Tracking Command 10111 NR BeamAddition/Release Command 11000 Activation/Deactivation (4 octets) 11001SC-MCCH, SC-MTCH (see note) 11010 Long DRX Command 11011Activation/Deactivation (1 octet) 11100 UE Contention ResolutionIdentity 11101 Timing Advance Command 11110 DRX Command 11111 PaddingNOTE: Both SC-MCCH and SC-MTCH are not multiplexed with other logicalchannels in the same MAC PDU except for Padding

TABLE 6 Values of LCID for UL-SCH Index LCID Values 00000 CCCH00001-01010 Identity of the logical channel 01011 CCCH 01100-10000Reserved 10001 NR Beam Measurement 10010 NR Beam Training Command 10011NR Beam Alignment Command 10100 NR Beam Tracking Command 10101 NR BeamAddition/Release Command 10110 Truncated Sidelink BSR 10111 Sidelink BSR11000 Dual Connectivity Power Headroom Report 11001 Extended PowerHeadroom Report 11010 Power Headroom Report 11011 C-RNTI 11100 TruncatedBSR 11101 Short BSR 11110 Long BSR 11111 Padding

The NR Beam Training Command may be used to trigger the commencement ofthe NR Beam Training procedure. An exemplary NR Beam Training CommandMAC CE is shown in FIG. 16. The NR Beam Training Command MAC CE may beidentified by MAC a PDU subheader with LCID as specified in Table 5 andTable 6.

The disclosed NR Beam Training Command MAC CE has a variable size,allowing it to include beam Ids for a specified maximum number of beams,defined as M. Alternatively, the MAC CE may be defined with a fixed sizeand padding may be used when the number of beams for which beam trainingshall be performed is less than M.

The disclosed NR Beam Training Command MAC CE may include the followingfields: S, P, R, and Beam ID. In this example, S would be the beamsweeping control bit. The S bit is set to “1” if beam sweeping should beperformed and “0” otherwise. P would correspond to the beam pairingcontrol bit. The P bit set to “1” if beam pairing should be performedand “0” otherwise. R would be the reserved bit and set to “0”. Beam IDwould be the beam and corresponding BT-RS that should be used for beamtraining.

The NR Beam Alignment Command may be used to trigger the commencement ofthe NR Beam Alignment procedure. An exemplary NR Beam Alignment CommandMAC CE is shown in FIG. 17. The NR Beam Alignment Command MAC CE may beidentified by MAC a PDU subheader with LCID as specified in Table 5 andTable 6.

The disclosed NR Beam Alignment Command MAC CE has a variable size,allowing it to include beam Ids for a specified maximum number of beams,defined as M. Alternatively, the MAC CE may be defined with a fixed sizeand padding may be used when the number of beams for which beamalignment shall be performed is less than M. The disclosed NR BeamAlignment Command MAC CE may include the following fields. A beam Idfield may include the beam and corresponding BT-RS that should be usedfor beam alignment. An R field may include a reserved bit, set to “0”.

The NR Beam Tracking Command may be used to trigger the commencement ofthe NR Beam Tracking procedure. An exemplary NR Beam Tracking CommandMAC CE is shown in FIG. 18. The NR Beam Alignment Command MAC CE may beidentified by MAC a PDU subheader with LCID as specified in Table 5 andTable 6.

The disclosed NR Beam Tracking Command MAC CE has a variable size,allowing it to include Beam Ids for a specified maximum number of beams,defined as M. Alternatively, the MAC CE may be defined with a fixed sizeand padding may be used when the number of beams for which beamalignment shall be performed is less than M.

The disclosed NR Beam Tracking Command MAC CE includes the followingfields. A beam Id field may include the beam and corresponding BT-RSthat should be used for beam alignment. An R field may include areserved bit, set to “0”.

The NR Beam Addition or Release Command may be used to (re-)configurethe set of serving beam(s) used for communication between the UE and aNW node (e.g., TRP or gNB), as discussed herein. The command may be usedto add or release one or more serving beams. After a serving beam isreleased, it may be considered a candidate beam, provided it meets theserving beam criteria or a detected beam, if it does not meet theserving beam criteria but is still detected.

An exemplary NR Beam Addition or Release Command MAC CE is shown in FIG.19. The NR Beam Addition or Release Command MAC CE may be identified byMAC a PDU subheader with LCID as specified in Table 5 and Table 6. Thedisclosed NR Beam Addition or Release Command MAC CE has a variablesize, allowing it to include Beam Ids for a specified maximum number ofbeams, defined as M. Alternatively, the MAC CE may be defined with afixed size and padding may be used when the number of beams beingadded/released is less than M. The disclosed NR Beam Addition/ReleaseCommand MAC CE may include the following fields: Beam Id and A/R. Forbeam ID, it may be considered the Id of the beam added or leased. ForA/R, it may be considered the addition or release bit. The A/R bit isset to “0” if a beam is being added and “0” if a beam is being added and“0” if the beam is being released.

NR Beam Training is a PHY layer procedure that may be configured andcontrolled by the MAC. The procedure may be used to discover and measurebeams transmitted by the UE node or NW node (e.g., TRP 202 or gNB 201).An exemplary Beam Training command is defined in FIG. 16. It iscomprised of an LCID that identifies the command and one or more beamIds that indicate for which beams training shall be performed. FIG. 20illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR Beam Training. NRBeam Training may include the transmission of BT-RSs from UE 205 or NWnode 190, and may include beam sweeping or beam pairing if supported bythe nodes. Beam sweeping is a process by which beams are switched on andoff in a time division fashion. This may be used in high frequencysystems since it would be difficult to build a system that cansimultaneously transmit all the high gain beams that would be needed tocover the cell area.

A set of beam Ids that correspond to BT-RSs used for the beam trainingmay be provided. Alternatively, the transmitting node may select thebeams autonomously, based on TRP load, beam load, traffic distribution,transport resources, hardware resources, or Operator-defined policies.For example, beam training command may trigger a node to redirect anexisting beam or transmit on a new beam in the direction of thereceiving node. Whether to redirect an existing beam or transmit on anew beam, in this example, may depend on the load and hardware resources(e.g., hardware capabilities of the transmitting node, which may berelevant to how many beams it could transmit simultaneously). Thereceiving node may blindly detect the transmitted beams if a set of beamIds is not provided. Signaling between the peer MAC entities may be usedto control the procedure and report the results. Note that blindlydetecting may refer to the receiving node not knowing which referencesignal is being transmitted and trying multiple hypotheses to determinewhich reference signal is actually being used.

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamTraining. At step 251, MAC 195 of UE 205 may commence with thetransmission of an NR Beam Training Command. In the example illustratedin FIG. 20, the NR Beam Training Command may be transmitted from the MAC195 of UE 205 to the peer MAC 198 in NW node 190 (e.g. TRP 202).Alternatively, NW node 190 may transmit the NR Beam Training Command totrigger the commencement of the procedure. The NR Beam Training Commandmay be transmitted using a random access channel, grantless channel, orany other channel providing communication between UE 205 and NW node190. A set of beam Ids that correspond to BT-RSs used for the beamtraining may be provided. Alternatively, the transmitting node (e.g., NWnode 190 or UE 205) may select the beams autonomously, based on TRPload, beam load, traffic distribution, transport resources, hardwareresources, or Operator defined policies. The receiving node (e.g., UE205) may blindly detect the transmitted beams if a set of beam Ids isnot provided.

At step 252, NW node 190 may perform DL beam sweeping with UE 205. Atstep 253, UE 205 may perform UL beam sweeping with NW node 190. Insituations when beam pairing is desired, the receiving node may sweepthe Rx beam to determine the optimal Rx beam to pair with a given Txbeam. At step 254, PHY 196 may provide beam measurements to MAC 195 ofUE 205. At step 255, PHY 197 may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 ofNW node 190. Step 254 or step 255 may occur during (e.g., step 251-step253) or following beam training. At step 256, MAC 195 of UE 205 maysignal an NR Beam Measurement report to peer MAC 198 of NW node 190.This step (and other NR Beam Measurement reporting steps herein in otherFIGs) may be based on criteria/format as discussed in association withTable 4 herein. At step 257, MAC 198 of NW node 190 may signal an NRBeam Measurement report to peer MAC 195 of UE 205. NR Beam Measurementreport of step 256 or step 257 may include information from step 254 orstep 255 respectively. It can be significant that the measurements maybe performed on the beam training reference signals after the apparatus(e.g., UE) issues the beam training command that triggers anotherapparatus (e.g., the gNB) to begin transmitting them.

The execution of sending the beam training command at step 251 may betriggered by one or more of the events in Table 4 (e.g. NR-D2 the numberof serving beams is less than a threshold, NR-D4 the number of candidatebeams is less than a threshold). For example, the UE may be performingmeasurements periodically and when an event occurs, UE 205 may, inresponse to the event, send the beam training command to trigger thetransmission of beam training reference signal (BT-RS) from the currentand/or new beams. The trigger of the beam alignment command or beamtracking command may also be based on a trigger, such as Table 4.

NR Beam Alignment is a PHY layer procedure that may be configured andcontrolled by the MAC. NR Beam Alignment may be used to refine thealignment of a beam, which may include adjustments to the beamwidth,beam direction, etc. The procedure may include the transmission ofBT-RSs from the UE or NW node and feedback from the receiving node tothe transmitting node to align the beam (e.g. adjust the precodingmatrix). A set of beam Ids that correspond to the beams that requirealignment may be provided. Alternatively, if a set of beam Ids is notexplicitly signaled, the node may assume the beams requiring alignmentare those beams configured as serving beams. Signaling between the peerMAC entities may be used to control the procedure and report theresults.

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamAlignment. At step 261, MAC 195 of UE 205 may commence with thetransmission of an NR beam alignment Command, wherein the transmissionof this command may be triggered by one or more of the events in Table4. In the example illustrated in FIG. 21, the NR Beam Alignment Commandis transmitted from MAC 195 of UE 205 to the peer MAC 198 in NW node190. Alternatively, NW node 190 may transmit the NR Beam AlignmentCommand to trigger the commencement of the procedure. The NR BeamAlignment Command may be transmitted using a random access channel,grantless channel, or any other channel providing communication betweenUE 205 and NW node 190. The NR Beam Alignment Command may include a setof a set of beam Ids that correspond to the beams that requirealignment. Alternatively, if a set of beam Ids is not explicitlysignaled, the node (e.g., UE 205, but could be NW node 190 ascontemplated herein) may, by default, determine the beams requiringalignment as those beams configured as serving beams.

At step 262, PHY 196 of UE 205 may signal Channel State Information(CSI) reports to the peer PHY 197 of NW node 190. At step 263, PHY 197of NW node 190 may signal CSI reports to the peer PHY 196 of UE 205. TheCSI reports may be used to refine the alignment of the beam(s), e.g.adjust the precoding matrix, beamforming weights, etc. For example, atstep 264, UE 205 adjusts the precoding matrix based on CSI report ofstep 263. At step 265, NW node 190 adjusts the precoding matrix based onCSI report of step 262. At step 266, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 267, PHY 197 of NW node 190may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. Step 266 orstep 267 may occur during (e.g., step 261-step 264) or following beamalignment. At step 268, MAC 195 of UE 205 may signal an NR BeamMeasurement report to peer MAC 198 of NW node 190. At step 269, MAC 198of NW node 190 may signal an NR Beam Measurement report to peer MAC 195of UE 205. NR Beam Measurement report of step 268 or step 269 mayinclude information from step 266 or step 267 respectively.

NR Beam Tracking is a PHY layer procedure that may be configured andcontrolled by the MAC. NR Beam Tracking may be used to maintain thealignment of beams (e.g., the serving beams) used for communicationbetween the UE and NW node. Alternatively, the procedure may also beused to maintain alignment for the candidate beams. The procedure mayinclude the periodic transmission of BT-RSs from the UE or NW node orfeedback from the receiving node to the transmitting node to maintainalignment of the beam, e.g. adjust the precoding matrix. A set of beamIds that correspond to beams that require tracking may be provided,where the set of beam Ids may be a subset of the serving beams orcandidate beams. Alternatively, if a set of beam Ids is not explicitlysignaled, the node may determine that the beams that require trackingare those beams configured as serving beams. Signaling between the peerMAC entities may be used to control the procedure and report theresults.

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamTracking. NR beam tracking may commence with the transmission of an NRBeam Tracking Command as in step 270, wherein the transmission of thiscommand may be triggered by one or more of the events in Table 4. In theexample illustrated in FIG. 22, the NR Beam Tracking Command istransmitted from MAC 195 of UE 205 to the peer MAC 198 in NW node 190.Alternatively, NW node 190 may transmit the NR Beam Tracking Command totrigger the commencement of the procedure. The NR Beam Tracking Commandmay be transmitted using a random access channel, grantless channel, orany other channel providing communication between UE 205 and NW node190. A set of beam Ids that correspond to beams that require trackingmay be provided, where the set of beam Ids may be a subset of theserving beams or candidate beams. Alternatively, if a set of beam Ids isnot explicitly signaled, the node (e.g., UE 205, but could be NW node190 as contemplated herein) may determine that the beams requiringtracking are those beams configured as serving beams.

At step 271, PHY 196 of UE 205 may signal CSI reports to the peer PHY197 of NW node 190. At step 272, PHY 197 of NW node 190 may signal CSIreports to the peer PHY 196 of UE 205. The CSI reports may be used torefine the alignment of the beam(s), e.g. adjust the precoding matrix,beamforming weights, etc. For example, at step 273, UE 205 adjusts theprecoding matrix based on CSI report of step 272. At step 274, NW node190 adjusts the precoding matrix based on CSI report of step 271. Atstep 275, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beam measurements to MAC 195 ofUE 205. At step 276, PHY 197 of NW node 190 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. Step 275 or step 276 may occurduring (e.g., step 271-step 273) or following beam tracking. At step277, MAC 195 of UE 205 may signal an NR Beam Measurement report to peerMAC 198 of NW node 190. At step 278, MAC 198 of NW node 190 may signalan NR Beam Measurement report to peer MAC 195 of UE 205. NR BeamMeasurement report of step 277 or step 278 may include information fromstep 275 or step 276 respectively. At step 279, the periodic series ofsteps providing feedback from the receiving node to the transmittingnode to maintain alignment of the beam, e.g. adjust the precodingmatrix.

NR Beam Configuration is a MAC layer procedure that may be used to (re-)configure the set of serving beam(s) used for communication between UE205 and NW node 209 (e.g., gNB or TRP). This command may be transmittedas a MAC CE. This procedure may help enable reliable and robustcommunications. Without this mechanism, when the quality of a beamdropped due to mobility, blockage, etc. UE 205 may not be able tocommunicate with the NW node 190. Prior to (re-) configuring the servingbeam(s), the NR Beam Training, NR Beam Alignment, or NR Beam Trackingprocedures may be performed to gather information to evaluate the beamsand make decisions about the beam configuration. FIG. 23 illustrates anexemplary method associated with NR Beam Configuration (UE Controlled),as discussed below. NR beam configuration will typically followcompletion of the NR Beam Training, NR Beam Alignment, or NR BeamTracking procedures of step 281. Determination of the beam configuration(e.g., step 285) may be based on UE 205 and NW 190 measurementsresulting from these procedures. In addition, other inputs such as TRPload, traffic distribution, transport resources, hardware resources, orOperator defined policies may be taken into account.

At step 282, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beam measurements to MAC 195of UE 205. At step 283, PHY 197 of NW node 190 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. At step 284, MAC 195 of UE 205may obtain an NR Beam Measurement report from peer MAC 198 of NW node190. At step 285, beam evaluation and decision is performed by UE 205.As disclosed herein, beam evaluation and decision may provide forranking of beam measurements, comparisons with thresholds, one or moreof the events in Table 4, etc. to determine which beams should be usedfor communication. At step 286, the NR Beam Addition or Release Commandis transmitted from MAC 195 of UE 205 to the peer MAC 198 in NW node190. The NR Beam Addition or Release Command may be transmitted using arandom access channel, grantless channel, or any other channel providingcommunication between the UE and NW node.

FIG. 24 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR BeamConfiguration (NW Controlled), as discussed below. NR beam configurationwill typically follow completion of the NR Beam Training, NR BeamAlignment, or NR Beam Tracking procedures of step 291. Determination ofthe beam configuration (e.g., step 295) may be based on UE 205measurements or NW 190 measurements resulting from these procedures. Inaddition, other inputs such as TRP load, traffic distribution, transportresources, hardware resources, or Operator defined policies may be takeninto account. At step 292, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 293, PHY 197 of NW node 190may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. At step 294,MAC 198 of NW node 190 may obtain an NR Beam Measurement report frompeer MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 295, beam evaluation and decision isperformed by NW node 190. Beam evaluation and decision is performed byNW node 190. As disclosed herein, beam evaluation and decision mayprovide for ranking of beam measurements, comparisons with thresholds,one or more of the events in Table 4, etc. to determine which beamsshould be used for communication. At step 296, the NR Beam Addition orRelease Command is transmitted from MAC 198 of NW node 190 to the peerMAC 195 in UE 205. The NR Beam Addition or Release Command may betransmitted using a random access channel, grantless channel, or anyother channel providing communication between the UE and NW node.

Exemplary signaling for initial access in NR beam centric networks isshown in FIG. 25 and FIG. 26. The signaling illustrated in FIG. 25 isfor UE controlled initial access, while the signaling in FIG. 26 is forNW controlled initial access.

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR InitialAccess (UE Controlled), as discussed below. At step 301, MAC 195 sendsan NR Beam Training command to MAC 198. Initial access commences withthe transmission of an NR Beam Training Command from the MAC entity ofthe UE to the peer MAC entity in the NW node. NR Beam Training Commandmay be transmitted using a random access channel, grantless channel, orany other channel providing communication between the UE and NW node.

At step 302, there is NR Beam training (e.g., FIG. 20) between NW node190 and UE 205. At step 303, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 304, PHY 197 of NW node 190may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. During orfollowing beam training, the PHY layers of each node may provide beammeasurements to their respective MAC layers. At step 305, beamevaluation and decision is performed by UE 205. UE evaluates the beammeasurements resulting from the beam training and may perform beamalignment, if required (e.g., a threshold measurement is reached). Atstep 306, MAC 198 of NW node 190 obtains an NR Beam alignment commandfrom MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 307, there is NR Beam Alignment (e.g.,FIG. 21) between NW node 190 and UE 205. At step 308, PHY 196 of UE 205may provide beam measurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 309, PHY 197of NW node 190 may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190.During or following beam alignment, the PHY layers of each node mayprovide beam measurements to their respective MAC layers. At step 310,UE 205 may obtain a beam measurement report from NW node 190, based onthe beam measurements of step 309. At step 311, beam evaluation anddecision is performed by UE 205. UE 205 may evaluate the beammeasurements resulting from the beam training and the beam alignmentprocedures and performs NR Beam Configuration (e.g., FIG. 23).

With continued reference to FIG. 25, at step 312, MAC 198 of NW node 190may obtain NR Beam Addition or Release commend from MAC 195 of UE 205.At step 313, MAC 198 of NW node 190 may obtain NR Beam tracking commendfrom MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 314, there may be NR Beam Tracking(e.g., FIG. 22) between UE 205 and NW node 190. At step 315, PHY 196 ofUE 205 may provide beam measurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 316,PHY 197 of NW node 190 may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NWnode 190. At step 317, UE 205 may obtain a beam measurement report fromNW node 190, based on the beam measurements of step 316.

FIG. 26 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NW controlledinitial access, as discussed below. At step 321, MAC 195 sends an NRBeam Training command to MAC 198. Initial access commences with thetransmission of an NR Beam Training Command from the MAC entity of theUE to the peer MAC entity in the NW node. NR Beam Training Command maybe transmitted using a random access channel, grantless channel, or anyother channel providing communication between UE 205 and NW node 190.

At step 322, there is NR Beam training (e.g., FIG. 20) between NW node190 and UE 205. At step 323, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beammeasurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 324, PHY 197 of NW node 190may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. During orfollowing beam training, the PHY layers of each node may provide beammeasurements to their respective MAC layers. At step 325, beamevaluation and decision is performed by NW node 190. NW node 190evaluates the beam measurements resulting from the beam training and mayperform beam alignment, if required. At step 326, MAC 198 of NW node 190obtains an NR Beam alignment command from MAC 198 of NW node 190. Atstep 327, there is NR Beam Alignment (e.g., FIG. 21) between NW node 190and UE 205. At step 328, PHY 196 of UE 205 may provide beam measurementsto MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 329, PHY 197 of NW node 190 may providebeam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190. During or following beamalignment, the PHY layers of each node may provide beam measurements totheir respective MAC layers. At step 330, UE 205 may send a beammeasurement report to NW node 190, based on the beam measurements ofstep 328. At step 311, beam evaluation and decision is performed by NWnode 190. NW node 190 may evaluate the beam measurements resulting fromthe beam training and the beam alignment procedures and performs NR BeamConfiguration (e.g., FIG. 23).

With continued reference to FIG. 25, at step 332, MAC 198 of NW node 190may send NR Beam Addition or Release commend to MAC 195 of UE 205. Atstep 333, MAC 198 of NW node 190 may send NR Beam tracking commend toMAC 195 of UE 205. At step 334, there may be NR Beam Tracking (e.g.,FIG. 22) between UE 205 and NW node 190. At step 335, PHY 196 of UE 205may provide beam measurements to MAC 195 of UE 205. At step 336, PHY 197of NW node 190 may provide beam measurements to MAC 198 of NW node 190.At step 337, UE 205 may send a NR beam measurement report to NW node190, based on the beam measurements of step 335.

Exemplary signaling for mobility management in NR beam centric networksis shown in FIG. 27 and FIG. 28. The signaling illustrated in FIG. 27 isfor UE controlled mobility management, while the signaling in FIG. 28 isfor NW controlled mobility.

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR MobilityManagement (UE Controlled), as discussed below. After establishing aconnection (step 341) with NW node 190, UE 205, at step 345, mayevaluate the beam measurements provided by the PHY layer (e.g., step342). Beam measurements (step 343 and step 344) may be provided by thepeer MAC entity (e.g., MAC 198 of NW node 190) may also be evaluated. Ifnot already running, UE 205 may trigger commencement of the NR BeamTracking procedure (step 347) by transmitting an NR Beam TrackingCommand (step 346) to the peer MAC 198 of NW node 190. Reasons fortriggering commencement of the NR Beam Tracking procedure may include,but are not limited to, the following: 1) one or more serving beams nolonger meet the serving beam criteria; or 2) change in the UE mobilitystate, such as transition from normal-mobility state to medium-mobilityor high-mobility state as specified in 3GPP TS 36.304. UE 205 maydisable beam tracking for one or beams if the serving criteria is againmet. Alternatively, the beam tracking may continue to be performedperiodically.

With continued reference to FIG. 27, if the criteria for one or moreserving beams is not met for a given amount of time, for example, UE 205may update the beam configuration by adding or releasing one or moreserving beams (step 349). The beam(s) added may be selected from thelist of candidate beams. The beam(s) released may be the beams whoseNR-RSRP is below a configured threshold. If there are not any candidatebeams to add, UE 205 may trigger commencement of the NR Beam Trainingprocedure to discover additional beams (step 350 and step 351). At step352, UE 205 may do another beam evaluation and make decision. Thedecision may include UE 205 triggering commencement of the NR BeamAlignment procedure to align the newly discovered beams (step 353 andstep 354). UE 205 may evaluate the newly discovered beams to determineif any of them meet the serving beam criteria and may be consideredcandidate beams (step 355). UE 205 may then, at step 356, triggerconfiguration of one or more of the candidate beams as serving beams.

FIG. 28 illustrates an exemplary method associated with NR MobilityManagement (NW Controlled), as discussed below. After UE 205 establishesa connection with NW node 190 (at step 361), NW node 190 evaluates thebeam measurements provided by the PHY layer (step 362, step 363, step364, step 365). Beam measurements provided by the peer MAC 195 of UE 205may also be evaluated. If not already running, NW node 190 may triggercommencement of the NR Beam Tracking procedure (step 367) bytransmitting an NR Beam Tracking Command (step 366) to the peer MAC 195of UE 205. Reasons for triggering commencement of the NR Beam Trackingprocedure may include, but are not, limited to the following: 1) one ormore serving beams no longer meet the serving beam criteria; or 2)change in the UE mobility state, such as transition from Normal-mobilitystate to Medium-mobility or High-mobility state as specified in 3GPP TS36.304. NW node 190 may disable beam tracking for one or beams if theserving criteria is again met (step 368). Alternatively, the beamtracking may continue to be performed periodically.

With continued reference to FIG. 28, if the criteria for one or moreserving beams is not met for a given amount of time, NW node 190 mayupdate the beam configuration by adding or releasing one or more servingbeams (step 369). The beam(s) added may be selected from the list ofcandidate beams. The beam(s) released may be the beams whose NR-RSRP isbelow a configured threshold. If there are not any candidate beams toadd, NW node 190 may trigger commencement of the NR Beam Trainingprocedure (step 370 and step 371) to discover additional beams. Based onevaluation and decision of step 372, NW node 190 may triggercommencement of the NR Beam Alignment procedure (step 373 and step 374)to align the newly discovered beams. At step 375, NW node 190 evaluatesthe newly discovered beams to determine if any of them meet the servingbeam criteria and can be considered candidate beams. NW node 190 maythen trigger configuration of one or more of the candidate beams asserving beams, such as step 376 that includes a NR beam addition orrelease.

It is contemplated herein that there may be periodic communication ofmeasurements throughout a wireless communication session. Measurementsreaching a particular threshold may trigger any of the NR BeamManagement procedures, which may include NR Beam Training, NR BeamAlignment, NR Beam Tracking, or NR Beam Configuration, among otherthings.

FIG. 30 illustrates an exemplary display (e.g., graphical userinterface) that may be generated based on the methods and systemsdiscussed herein. Display interface 901 (e.g., touch screen display) mayprovide text in block 902 associated with beam management, such as theparameters of Table 4 through Table 6. In another example, progress ofany of the steps (e.g., sent messages or success of steps) discussedherein may be displayed in block 902. In addition, graphical output 903may be displayed on display interface 901. Graphical output 903 may bethe topology of the devices in a cluster, a graphical output of theprogress of any method or systems discussed herein, or the like

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops technicalstandards for cellular telecommunications network technologies,including radio access, the core transport network, and servicecapabilities—including work on codecs, security, and quality of service.Recent radio access technology (RAT) standards include WCDMA (commonlyreferred as 3G), LTE (commonly referred as 4G), and LTE-Advancedstandards. 3GPP has begun working on the standardization of nextgeneration cellular technology, called New Radio (NR), which is alsoreferred to as “5G”. 3GPP NR standards development is expected toinclude the definition of next generation radio access technology (newRAT), which is expected to include the provision of new flexible radioaccess below 6 GHz, and the provision of new ultra-mobile broadbandradio access above 6 GHz. The flexible radio access is expected toconsist of a new, non-backwards compatible radio access in new spectrumbelow 6 GHz, and it is expected to include different operating modesthat can be multiplexed together in the same spectrum to address a broadset of 3GPP NR use cases with diverging requirements. The ultra-mobilebroadband is expected to include cmWave and mmWave spectrum that willprovide the opportunity for ultra-mobile broadband access for, e.g.,indoor applications and hotspots. In particular, the ultra-mobilebroadband is expected to share a common design framework with theflexible radio access below 6 GHz, with cmWave and mmWave specificdesign optimizations.

3GPP has identified a variety of use cases that NR is expected tosupport, resulting in a wide variety of user experience requirements fordata rate, latency, and mobility. The use cases include the followinggeneral categories: enhanced mobile broadband (e.g., broadband access indense areas, indoor ultra-high broadband access, broadband access in acrowd, 50+ Mbps everywhere, ultra-low cost broadband access, mobilebroadband in vehicles), critical communications, massive machine typecommunications, network operation (e.g., network slicing, routing,migration and interworking, energy savings), and enhancedvehicle-to-everything (eV2X) communications. Specific service andapplications in these categories include, e.g., monitoring and sensornetworks, device remote controlling, bi-directional remote controlling,personal cloud computing, video streaming, wireless cloud-based office,first responder connectivity, automotive ecall, disaster alerts,real-time gaming, multi-person video calls, autonomous driving,augmented reality, tactile internet, and virtual reality to name a few.All of these use cases and others are contemplated herein.

FIG. 29A illustrates an example communications system 100 in which themethods and apparatuses described and claimed herein. As shown, theexample communications system 100 may include wireless transmit/receiveunits (WTRUs) 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, or 102 d (which generally orcollectively may be referred to as WTRU 102), a radio access network(RAN) 103/104/105/103 b/104 b/105 b, a core network 106/107/109, apublic switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, andother networks 112, though it will be appreciated that the disclosedsubject matter herein are examples for any number of WTRUs, basestations, networks, or network elements. WTRU 102 may be associated withUEs discussed herein, such as of FIG. 20-FIG. 28. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, 102 e may be any type of apparatus or deviceconfigured to operate or communicate in a wireless environment. Althougheach WTRU 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, 102 e is depicted in FIGS. 29A-29Eas a hand-held wireless communications apparatus, it is understood thatwith the wide variety of use cases contemplated for 5G wirelesscommunications, each WTRU may comprise or be in any type of apparatus ordevice configured to transmit or receive wireless signals, including, byway of example only, user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed ormobile subscriber unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, a netbook, anotebook computer, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, consumerelectronics, a wearable device such as a smart watch or smart clothing,a medical or eHealth device, a robot, industrial equipment, a drone, avehicle such as a car, truck, train, or airplane, and the like.

The communications system 100 may also include a base station 114 a anda base station 114 b. Base stations 114 a may be any type of deviceconfigured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102 a,102 b, 102 c to facilitate access to one or more communication networks,such as the core network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, or the othernetworks 112. Base stations 114 b may be any type of device configuredto wiredly and/or wirelessly interface with at least one of the RRHs(Remote Radio Heads) 118 a, 118 b and/or TRPs (Transmission andReception Points) 119 a, 119 b to facilitate access to one or morecommunication networks, such as the core network 106/107/109, theInternet 110, and/or the other networks 112. RRHs 118 a, 118 b may beany type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least oneof the WTRU 102 c, to facilitate access to one or more communicationnetworks, such as the core network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, and/orthe other networks 112. TRPs 119 a, 119 b may be any type of deviceconfigured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRU 102 d,to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as thecore network 106/107/109, the Internet 110, and/or the other networks112. By way of example, the base stations 114 a, 114 b may be a basetransceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a HomeeNode B, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, andthe like. While the base stations 114 a, 114 b are each depicted as asingle element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114 a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations or networkelements.

The base station 114 a may be part of the RAN 103/104/105, which mayalso include other base stations or network elements (not shown), suchas a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC),relay nodes, etc. The base station 114 b may be part of the RAN 103b/104 b/105 b, which may also include other base stations and/or networkelements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radionetwork controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114 a maybe configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals within aparticular geographic region, which may be referred to as a cell (notshown). The base station 114 b may be configured to transmit and/orreceive wired and/or wireless signals within a particular geographicregion, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell mayfurther be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associatedwith the base station 114 a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, inan example, the base station 114 a may include three transceivers, e.g.,one for each sector of the cell. In an example, the base station 114 amay employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and,therefore, may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of thecell.

The base stations 114 a may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c over an air interface 115/116/117, which may be anysuitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave,mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115/116/117 may be established usingany suitable radio access technology (RAT).

The base stations 114 b may communicate with one or more of the RRHs 118a, 118 b and/or TRPs 119 a, 119 b over a wired or air interface 115b/116 b/117 b, which may be any suitable wired (e.g., cable, opticalfiber, etc.) or wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF),microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, cmWave,mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115 b/116 b/117 b may be establishedusing any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

The RRHs 118 a, 118 b and/or TRPs 119 a, 119 b may communicate with oneor more of the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d over an air interface 115 c/116 c/117c, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radiofrequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visiblelight, cmWave, mmWave, etc.). The air interface 115 c/116 c/117 c may beestablished using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may bea multiple access system and may employ one or more channel accessschemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. Forexample, the base station 114 a in the RAN 103/104/105 and the WTRUs 102a, 102 b, 102 c, or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b in the RAN103 b/104 b/105 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d, may implement a radiotechnology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface115/116/117 or 115 c/116 c/117 c respectively using wideband CDMA(WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-SpeedPacket Access (HSPA) or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may includeHigh-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) or High-Speed Uplink PacketAccess (HSUPA).

In an example, the base station 114 a and the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102,or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b in the RAN 103 b/104 b/105 band the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d,c may implement a radio technology such asEvolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish theair interface 115/116/117 or 115 c/116 c/117 c respectively using LongTerm Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). In the future, the airinterface 115/116/117 may implement 3GPP NR technology.

In an example, the base station 114 a in the RAN 103/104/105 and theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, or RRHs 118 a, 118 b and TRPs 119 a, 119 b inthe RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b and the WTRUs 102 c, 102 d, may implementradio technologies such as IEEE 802.16 (e.g., Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO,Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), InterimStandard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM),Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and thelike.

The base station 114 c in FIG. 29A may be a wireless router, Home NodeB, Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize anysuitable RAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area,such as a place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, and the like,for implementing the methods and systems of beam management, asdisclosed herein. In an example, the base station 114 c and the WTRUs102 e, may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establisha wireless local area network (WLAN). In an example, the base station114 c and the WTRUs 102 d, may implement a radio technology such as IEEE802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yetanother example, the base station 114 c and the WTRUs 102 e, may utilizea cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, etc.) toestablish a picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 29A, the basestation 114 b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Thus,the base station 114 c may not be required to access the Internet 110via the core network 106/107/109.

The RAN 103/104/105 or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b may be in communicationwith the core network 106/107/109, which may be any type of networkconfigured to provide voice, data, applications, or voice over internetprotocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102c, 102 d. For example, the core network 106/107/109 may provide callcontrol, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paidcalling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., or performhigh-level security functions, such as user authentication.

Although not shown in FIG. 29A, it will be appreciated that the RAN103/104/105 or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b or the core network 106/107/109 maybe in direct or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b or indirect communication withother RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or adifferent RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN103/104/105 or RAN 103 b/104 b/105 b, which may be utilizing an E-UTRAradio technology, the core network 106/107/109 may also be incommunication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM radiotechnology.

The core network 106/107/109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, 102 e to access the PSTN 108, the Internet110, or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switchedtelephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). TheInternet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computernetworks and devices that use common communication protocols, such asthe transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP)and the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite.The networks 112 may include wired or wireless communications networksowned or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks112 may include another core network connected to one or more RANs,which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or RAN 103 b/104b/105 b or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d, and 102 e may include multipletransceivers for communicating with different wireless networks overdifferent wireless links for implementing the methods and systems ofbeam management, as disclosed herein. For example, the WTRU 102 e shownin FIG. 29A may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the basestation 114 c, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 29B is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with implementing the methodsand systems of beam management, as disclosed herein, such as forexample, a WTRU 102 (e.g., UE 205). As shown in FIG. 29B, the exampleWTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, atransmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, adisplay/touchpad/indicators 128, non-removable memory 130, removablememory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS)chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that theWTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements whileremaining consistent with an example. Also, the base stations 114 a and114 b, or the nodes that base stations 114 a and 114 b may represent,such as but not limited to transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, a sitecontroller, an access point (AP), a home node-B, an evolved home node-B(eNodeB), a home evolved node-B (HeNB), a home evolved node-B gateway,and proxy nodes, among others, may include some or all of the elementsdepicted in FIG. 29B and may be an exemplary implementation thatperforms the disclosed methods and systems of beam management, asdisclosed herein.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 29Bdepicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 115/116/117. For example, the transmit/receiveelement 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit or receive RFsignals. Although not shown in FIG. 29A, it will be appreciated that theRAN 103/104/105 or the core network 106/107/109 may be in direct orindirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as theRAN 103/104/105 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to beingconnected to the RAN 103/104/105, which may be utilizing an E-UTRA radiotechnology, the core network 106/107/109 may also be in communicationwith another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM radio technology.

The core network 106/107/109 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, orother networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephonenetworks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks anddevices that use common communication protocols, such as thetransmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) andthe internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. Thenetworks 112 may include wired or wireless communications networks ownedor operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112may include another core network connected to one or more RANs, whichmay employ the same RAT as the RAN 103/104/105 or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, 102 d in thecommunications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, e.g., theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and 102 d may include multiple transceiversfor communicating with different wireless networks over differentwireless links. For example, the WTRU 102 c shown in FIG. 29A may beconfigured to communicate with the base station 114 a, which may employa cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114 b,which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

FIG. 29B is a block diagram of an example apparatus or device configuredfor wireless communications in accordance with the examples illustratedherein, such as for example, a WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 29B, theexample WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, atransmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, adisplay/touchpad/indicators 128, non-removable memory 130, removablememory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS)chipset 136, and other peripherals 138. It will be appreciated that theWTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements whileremaining consistent with an example. Also, contemplated herein throughthe examples are that the base stations 114 a and 114 b, or the nodesthat base stations 114 a and 114 b may represent, such as but notlimited to transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, a site controller, anaccess point (AP), a home node-B, an evolved home node-B (eNodeB), ahome evolved node-B (HeNB), a home evolved node-B gateway, and proxynodes, among others, may include some or all of the elements depicted inFIG. 29B and described herein.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 29Bdepicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and thetransceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 115/116/117. For example, the transmit/receiveelement 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit or receive RFsignals. In an example, the transmit/receive element 122 may be anemitter/detector configured to transmit or receive IR, UV, or visiblelight signals, for example. In yet another example, the transmit/receiveelement 122 may be configured to transmit and receive both RF and lightsignals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122may be configured to transmit or receive any combination of wirelesssignals.

In addition, although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted inFIG. 29B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number oftransmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 mayemploy MIMO technology. Thus, in an example, the WTRU 102 may includetwo or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) fortransmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface115/116/117.

The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that areto be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulatethe signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. Asnoted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, thetransceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11, forexample.

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receiveuser input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, or thedisplay/touchpad/indicators 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD)display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). Theprocessor 118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124,the keypad 126, or the display/touchpad/indicators 128. In addition, theprocessor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any typeof suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 or theremovable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may includerandom-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or anyother type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 mayinclude a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, asecure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In an example, theprocessor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memorythat is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or ahome computer (not shown). The processor 118 may be configured tocontrol lighting patterns, images, or colors on the display orindicators 128 in response to whether the setup of some of the beammanagement procedures in some of the examples described herein aresuccessful or unsuccessful, or otherwise indicate a status of beammangement and associated components. The control lighting patterns,images, or colors on the display or indicators 128 may be reflective ofthe status of any of the method flows or components in the FIG.'sillustrated or discussed herein (e.g., FIG. 20-FIG. 28, etc). Disclosedherein are messages and procedures of beam management. The messages andprocedures may be extended to provide interface/API for users to requestresource-related resources via an input source (e.g., speaker/microphone124, keypad 126, or display/touchpad/indicators 128) and request,configure, or query beam management related information, among otherthings that may be displayed on display 128.

The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and maybe configured to distribute or control the power to the other componentsin the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device forpowering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include oneor more dry cell batteries, solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which maybe configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude andlatitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In additionto, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU102 may receive location information over the air interface 115/116/117from a base station (e.g., base stations 114 a, 114 b) or determine itslocation based on the timing of the signals being received from two ormore nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 mayacquire location information by way of any suitablelocation-determination method while remaining consistent with anexample.

The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, whichmay include one or more software or hardware modules that provideadditional features, functionality or wired or wireless connectivity.For example, the peripherals 138 may include various sensors such as anaccelerometer, biometrics (e.g., finger print) sensors, an e-compass, asatellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs or video), auniversal serial bus (USB) port or other interconnect interfaces, avibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, aBluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digitalmusic player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internetbrowser, and the like.

The WTRU 102, as disclosed, may be other apparatuses or devices, such asa sensor, consumer electronics, a wearable device such as a smart watchor smart clothing, a medical or eHealth device, a robot, industrialequipment, a drone, a vehicle such as a car, truck, train, or airplane.The WTRU 102 may connect to other components, modules, or systems ofsuch apparatuses or devices via one or more interconnect interfaces,such as an interconnect interface that may comprise one of theperipherals 138.

FIG. 29C is a system diagram of the RAN 103 and the core network 106according to beam management as discussed herein. As noted above, theRAN 103 may employ a UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, and 102 c over the air interface 115. The RAN 103 may alsobe in communication with the core network 106. As shown in FIG. 29C, theRAN 103 may include Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c, which may each includeone or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c over the air interface 115. The Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c mayeach be associated with a particular cell (not shown) within the RAN103. The RAN 103 may also include RNCs 142 a, 142 b. It will beappreciated that the RAN 103 may include any number of Node-Bs and RNCswhile remaining consistent with an example.

As shown in FIG. 29C, the Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b may be in communicationwith the RNC 142 a. Additionally, the Node-B 140 c may be incommunication with the RNC 142 b. The Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c maycommunicate with the respective RNCs 142 a, 142 b via an Iub interface.The RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be in communication with one another via anIur interface. Each of the RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be configured tocontrol the respective Node-Bs 140 a, 140 b, 140 c to which it isconnected. In addition, each of the RNCs 142 a, 142 b may be configuredto carry out or support other functionality, such as outer loop powercontrol, load control, admission control, packet scheduling, handovercontrol, macro-diversity, security functions, data encryption, and thelike.

The core network 106 shown in FIG. 29C may include a media gateway (MGW)144, a mobile switching center (MSC) 146, a serving GPRS support node(SGSN) 148, or a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) 150. While each of theforegoing elements are depicted as part of the core network 106, it willbe appreciated that any one of these elements may be owned or operatedby an entity other than the core network operator.

The RNC 142 a in the RAN 103 may be connected to the MSC 146 in the corenetwork 106 via an IuCS interface. The MSC 146 may be connected to theMGW 144. The MSC 146 and the MGW 144 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, tofacilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c andtraditional land-line communications devices.

The RNC 142 a in the RAN 103 may also be connected to the SGSN 148 inthe core network 106 via an IuPS interface. The SGSN 148 may beconnected to the GGSN 150. The SGSN 148 and the GGSN 150 may provide theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, suchas the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between and the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enabled devices.

As noted above, the core network 106 may also be connected to thenetworks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks thatare owned or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 29D is a system diagram of the RAN 104 and the core network 107according to beam management as discussed herein. As noted above, theRAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104may also be in communication with the core network 107.

The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c, though it will beappreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs whileremaining consistent with an example. The eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 cmay each include one or more transceivers for communicating with theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 116. In an example, theeNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, theeNode-B 160 a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmitwireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102 a.

Each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, and 160 c may be associated with aparticular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radioresource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of usersin the uplink or downlink, and the like. As shown in FIG. 29D, theeNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, 160 c may communicate with one another over an X2interface.

The core network 107 shown in FIG. 29D may include a mobility managementgateway (MME) 162, a serving gateway 164, and a packet data network(PDN) gateway 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted aspart of the core network 107, it will be appreciated that any one ofthese elements may be owned or operated by an entity other than the corenetwork operator.

The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160 a, 160 b, and160 c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a controlnode. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticatingusers of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, bearer activation/deactivation,selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like. The MME 162 may also provide acontrol plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs(not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM or WCDMA.

The serving gateway 164 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 160 a,160 b, and 160 c in the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The servinggateway 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to/fromthe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c. The serving gateway 164 may also performother functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode Bhandovers, triggering paging when downlink data is available for theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c, and the like.

The serving gateway 164 may also be connected to the PDN gateway 166,which may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access topacket-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and IP-enableddevices.

The core network 107 may facilitate communications with other networks.For example, the core network 107 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b,102 c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, tofacilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c andtraditional land-line communications devices. For example, the corenetwork 107 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g.,an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interfacebetween the core network 107 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the corenetwork 107 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to thenetworks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks thatare owned or operated by other service providers.

FIG. 29E is a system diagram of the RAN 105 and the core network 109which may be associated with beam management as discussed herein. TheRAN 105 may be an access service network (ASN) that employs IEEE 802.16radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 cover the air interface 117. As will be further discussed below, thecommunication links between the different functional entities of theWTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c, the RAN 105, and the core network 109 may bedefined as reference points.

As shown in FIG. 29E, the RAN 105 may include base stations 180 a, 180b, 180 c, and an ASN gateway 182, though it will be appreciated that theRAN 105 may include any number of base stations and ASN gateways whileremaining consistent with an example. The base stations 180 a, 180 b,180 c may each be associated with a particular cell in the RAN 105 andmay include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs102 a, 102 b, 102 c over the air interface 117. In an example, the basestations 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, thebase station 180 a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmitwireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102 a.The base stations 180 a, 180 b, 180 c may also provide mobilitymanagement functions, such as handoff triggering, tunnel establishment,radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service(QoS) policy enforcement, and the like. The ASN gateway 182 may serve asa traffic aggregation point and may be responsible for paging, cachingof subscriber profiles, routing to the core network 109, and the like.

The air interface 117 between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and the RAN105 may be defined as an R1 reference point that implements the IEEE802.16 specification. In addition, each of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and102 c may establish a logical interface (not shown) with the corenetwork 109. The logical interface between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cand the core network 109 may be defined as an R2 reference point, whichmay be used for authentication, authorization, IP host configurationmanagement, or mobility management.

The communication link between each of the base stations 180 a, 180 b,and 180 c may be defined as an R8 reference point that includesprotocols for facilitating WTRU handovers and the transfer of databetween base stations. The communication link between the base stations180 a, 180 b, 180 c and the ASN gateway 182 may be defined as an R6reference point. The R6 reference point may include protocols forfacilitating mobility management based on mobility events associatedwith each of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c.

As shown in FIG. 29E, the RAN 105 may be connected to the core network109. The communication link between the RAN 105 and the core network 109may defined as an R3 reference point that includes protocols forfacilitating data transfer and mobility management capabilities, forexample. The core network 109 may include a mobile IP home agent(MIP-HA) 184, an authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) server186, and a gateway 188. While each of the foregoing elements aredepicted as part of the core network 109, it will be appreciated thatany one of these elements may be owned or operated by an entity otherthan the core network operator.

The MIP-HA may be responsible for IP address management, and may enablethe WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c to roam between different ASNs ordifferent core networks. The MIP-HA 184 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102b, 102 c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cand IP-enabled devices. The AAA server 186 may be responsible for userauthentication and for supporting user services. The gateway 188 mayfacilitate interworking with other networks. For example, the gateway188 may provide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access tocircuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitatecommunications between the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c and traditionalland-line communications devices. In addition, the gateway 188 mayprovide the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 c with access to the networks 112,which may include other wired or wireless networks that are owned oroperated by other service providers.

Although not shown in FIG. 29E, it will be appreciated that the RAN 105may be connected to other ASNs and the core network 109 may be connectedto other core networks. The communication link between the RAN 105 theother ASNs may be defined as an R4 reference point, which may includeprotocols for coordinating the mobility of the WTRUs 102 a, 102 b, 102 cbetween the RAN 105 and the other ASNs. The communication link betweenthe core network 109 and the other core networks may be defined as an R5reference, which may include protocols for facilitating interworkingbetween home core networks and visited core networks.

The core network entities described herein and illustrated in FIGS. 29A,29C, 29D, and 29E are identified by the names given to those entities incertain existing 3GPP specifications, but it is understood that in thefuture those entities and functionalities may be identified by othernames and certain entities or functions may be combined in futurespecifications published by 3GPP, including future 3GPP NRspecifications. Thus, the particular network entities andfunctionalities described and illustrated in FIGS. 29A, 29B, 29C, 29D,and 29E are provided by way of example only, and it is understood thatthe subject matter disclosed and claimed herein may be implemented inany similar communication system, whether presently defined or definedin the future. Nodes in FIG. 29A-29E (e.g., nodeB 140 a, eNode-B 160 a,base station 180 b), may be associated with NW nodes discussed in FIG.20-FIG. 28, among others.

FIG. 29F is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system 90 in whichone or more apparatuses of the communications networks illustrated inFIGS. 29A, 29C, 29D and 29E may be used in, such as certain nodes orfunctional entities in the RAN 103/104/105, Core Network 106/107/109,PSTN 108, Internet 110, or Other Networks 112. Computing system 90 maycomprise a computer or server and may be controlled primarily bycomputer readable instructions, which may be in the form of software,wherever, or by whatever means such software is stored or accessed. Suchcomputer readable instructions may be executed within a processor 91, tocause computing system 90 to do work. The processor 91 may be a generalpurpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventionalprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSPcore, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) circuits, anyother type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like.The processor 91 may perform signal coding, data processing, powercontrol, input/output processing, or any other functionality thatenables the computing system 90 to operate in a communications network.Coprocessor 81 is an optional processor, distinct from main processor91, that may perform additional functions or assist processor 91.Processor 91 or coprocessor 81 may receive, generate, and process datarelated to the methods and apparatuses disclosed herein for beammanagement.

In operation, processor 91 fetches, decodes, and executes instructions,and transfers information to and from other resources via the computingsystem's main data-transfer path, system bus 80. Such a system busconnects the components in computing system 90 and defines the mediumfor data exchange. System bus 80 typically includes data lines forsending data, address lines for sending addresses, and control lines forsending interrupts and for operating the system bus. An example of sucha system bus 80 is the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus.

Memories coupled to system bus 80 include random access memory (RAM) 82and read only memory (ROM) 93. Such memories include circuitry thatallows information to be stored and retrieved. ROMs 93 generally containstored data that cannot easily be modified. Data stored in RAM 82 can beread or changed by processor 91 or other hardware devices. Access to RAM82 or ROM 93 may be controlled by memory controller 92. Memorycontroller 92 may provide an address translation function thattranslates virtual addresses into physical addresses as instructions areexecuted. Memory controller 92 may also provide a memory protectionfunction that isolates processes within the system and isolates systemprocesses from user processes. Thus, a program running in a first modecan access only memory mapped by its own process virtual address space;it cannot access memory within another process's virtual address spaceunless memory sharing between the processes has been set up.

In addition, computing system 90 may contain peripherals controller 83responsible for communicating instructions from processor 91 toperipherals, such as printer 94, keyboard 84, mouse 95, and disk drive85.

Display 86, which is controlled by display controller 96, is used todisplay visual output generated by computing system 90. Such visualoutput may include text, graphics, animated graphics, and video. Thevisual output may be provided in the form of a graphical user interface(GUI). Display 86 may be implemented with a CRT-based video display, anLCD-based flat-panel display, gas plasma-based flat-panel display, or atouch-panel. Display controller 96 includes electronic componentsrequired to generate a video signal that is sent to display 86.

Further, computing system 90 may contain communication circuitry, suchas for example a network adapter 97, that may be used to connectcomputing system 90 to an external communications network, such as theRAN 103/104/105, Core Network 106/107/109, PSTN 108, Internet 110, orOther Networks 112 of FIGS. 29A, 29B, 29C, 29D, and 29E, to enable thecomputing system 90 to communicate with other nodes or functionalentities of those networks. The communication circuitry, alone or incombination with the processor 91, may be used to perform thetransmitting and receiving steps of certain apparatuses, nodes, orfunctional entities described herein.

It is understood that any or all of the apparatuses, systems, methodsand processes described herein may be used in the form of computerexecutable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on acomputer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by aprocessor, such as processors 118 or 91, cause the processor to performor implement the systems, methods and processes described herein.Specifically, any of the steps, operations or functions described hereinmay be implemented in the form of such computer executable instructions,executing on the processor of an apparatus or computing systemconfigured for wireless or wired network communications. Computerreadable storage media include volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any non-transitory (e.g., tangible orphysical) method or technology for storage of information, but suchcomputer readable storage media do not includes signals. Computerreadable storage media include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other tangible or physical medium which can be used to store thedesired information and which can be accessed by a computing system.

In describing preferred methods, systems, or apparatuses of the subjectmatter of the present disclosure—beam management—as illustrated in theFigures, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity. Theclaimed subject matter, however, is not intended to be limited to thespecific terminology so selected, and it is to be understood that eachspecific element includes all technical equivalents that operate in asimilar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.

The various techniques described herein may be implemented in connectionwith hardware, firmware, software or, where appropriate, combinationsthereof. Such hardware, firmware, and software may reside in apparatuseslocated at various nodes of a communication network. The apparatuses mayoperate singly or in combination with each other to effectuate themethods described herein. As used herein, the terms “apparatus,”“network apparatus,” “node,” “device,” “network node,” or the like maybe used interchangeably. In addition, the use of the word “or” isgenerally used inclusively unless otherwise provided herein. The termsMAC layer, MAC entity, MAC, MAC sublayer, or the like are generally usedinterchangeable. A MAC entity may be viewed as the part of the apparatusthat performs the MAC functions; i.e. the implementation of the MAClayer. In some scenarios; e.g. dual connectivity, there may be multipleMAC entities in the apparatus. To simplify the disclosure, generally theexamples herein show there is one MAC entity in the UE and another MACentity in the gNB. These are considered peer MAC entities when referringto MAC layer communication between the UE and gNB. Further, although“greater than” and “less than” a threshold is disclosed (e.g., Table 4),the terms within a threshold or reaching a threshold may be used toencompass the “greater than” and “less than” terminology.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention,including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the invention, including making and using any devices orsystems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope ofthe invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examplesthat occur to those skilled in the art (e.g., skipping steps, combiningsteps, or adding steps between exemplary methods disclosed herein). Suchother examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if theyhave structural elements that do not differ from the literal language ofthe claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements withinsubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, among other things, as describedherein may be associated with beam management, such as beam aggregationwith carrier aggregation. A method, system, computer readable storagemedium, or apparatus has means that include a medium access control(MAC) layer that maps: 1) a first transport block to a first scheduledserving beam and a second transport block to a second scheduled servingbeam. The apparatus may be a user equipment (UE). The MAC layer maymultiplex a first radio link control to the first transport block and asecond link control to a second transport block. The mapping may bebased on user equipment measurement. The user equipment measurement mayinclude reference signal received power, reference signal receivedquality, received signal strength indicator, NR-RSRP, or referencesignal to noise and interference ratio. The mapping may be based on anetwork node measurement. The network node measurement may includeNR-RSRP for one or more beams. The first scheduled serving beam may bemapped to a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and the secondscheduled serving beam may be mapped to a second HARQ. All combinationsin this paragraph (including the removal or addition of steps) arecontemplated in a manner that is consistent with the other portions ofthe detailed description.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, among other things, as describedherein may be associated with beam management, such as beam aggregationwith carrier aggregation. A method, system, computer readable storagemedium, or apparatus has means that include a medium access control(MAC) layer that maps a first transport block to a first pair of firstbeam and first component carrier, and a second transport block to asecond pair of second beam and second component carrier. The firsttransport block may map to a first transmission time interval (TTI) andthe second transport block maps to a second TTI. The first transportblock may map to a first hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and thesecond transport block may map to a second HARQ. The apparatus may be auser equipment (UE). The MAC layer may perform logical channelprioritization and scheduling. The MAC layer may perform logical channelprioritization and scheduling based on grant from a base station. Thebase station may be a gNB. The new radio (NR) access technology mayreplace LTE or the like technologies and the new base station may becalled gNB (or gNodeB) (e.g., replace the eNodeB of LTE or the like).The apparatus may be a network node. All combinations in this paragraph(including the removal or addition of steps) are contemplated in amanner that is consistent with the other portions of the detaileddescription.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses, among other things, as describedherein may be associated with beam management, such as beam aggregationwith carrier aggregation. A method, system, computer readable storagemedium, or apparatus has means that include providing a beam trainingcommand and a beam index of a beam and responsive to providing the beamtraining command, receiving a beam training reference signal (BT-RS).The beam training reference signal may be associated with beam sweeping.The beam training command may include an LCID value. The method, system,computer readable storage medium, or apparatus has means that includeupon receiving the beam training reference signal performingmeasurements. The measurements may be performed on the beam trainingreference signal. The measurements may include reference signal receivedpower, reference signal received quality, received signal strengthindicator, NR-RSRP, or reference signal to noise and interference ratio.The beam index may be used by a MAC layer to look up a beam identity.The measurements may be transmitted to a peer MAC entity in ameasurement report. The beam index may be used by the MAC layer to lookup associated characteristics of a beam. The method, system, computerreadable storage medium, or apparatus has means that include displayinga beam training reference signal. The apparatus may be a user equipment(UE). The method, system, computer readable storage medium, or apparatushas means that include in response to receiving a beam trainingreference signal, performing measurements on the beam training referencesignal; based on the measurements on the beam training reference signaland traffic distribution of a wireless network, determining that athreshold measurement associated with one or more beams has beenreached, wherein a first beam of the one or more beams is identified bythe beam index; and based on the determining that the thresholdmeasurement associated with the one or more beams has been reached,providing instructions to configure the one or more beams, theinstructions comprising a beam release command or a beam additioncommand. The method, system, computer readable storage medium, orapparatus has means that include in response to receiving a beamtraining reference signal, performing measurements on the beam trainingreference signal; based on the measurements on the beam trainingreference signal, determining that a threshold measurement associatedwith one or more beams has been reached, wherein a first beam of the oneor more beams is identified by the beam index; and based on thedetermining that the threshold measurement associated with the one ormore beams has been reached, providing instructions to report at least afirst beam measurement of the one or more beams (or other LCIDs) to apeer medium access control layer. A first beam of the one or more beamsmay identified by the beam index and wherein the threshold measurementmay be a number (e.g., an amount) of serving beams. The thresholdmeasurement may be a number of candidate beams. The report of the atleast first beam measurement of the one or more beams to the peer mediumaccess control layer may be within a medium access control layer controlelement. The medium access control layer control element may beidentified by a MAC protocol data unit subheader with a logical channelidentifier. The logical channel identifier may include values thatcorrespond to beam measurement or a beam training command, a beamalignment command, a beam tracking command, a beam addition command, ora beam release command. All combinations in this paragraph (includingthe removal or addition of steps) are contemplated in a manner that isconsistent with the other portions of the detailed description.

What is claimed:
 1. An apparatus for wireless communication, theapparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled with theprocessor, the memory storing executable instructions that when executedby the processor cause the processor to effectuate operationscomprising: communicating with a user equipment via a first beam, thefirst beam configured as a serving beam; transmitting beam referencesignals to the user equipment, the beam reference signals used formeasurements on a plurality of beams including the first beam and asecond beam based on the beam reference signals, the second beam notconfigured as a serving beam; receiving a feedback based on themeasurements from the user equipment; transmitting to the user equipmenta beam addition/release command in a medium access control—controlelement (MAC-CE), the beam addition/release command comprising aplurality of bit field, each of the plurality of bit field is set to 1or 0 denoting addition or release of corresponding beam; and controllingaddition or release of one or more beams to or from the set of servingbeams based on the beam addition/release command.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, the operations further comprising obtaining a report of themeasurements from the user equipment.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the second beam is a candidate beam.
 4. The apparatus of claim1, the operations further comprising obtaining a report of themeasurements from the user equipment based on a measurement reaching athreshold.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, the operations furthercomprising scheduling assignments via the serving beam for schedulingassignments.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the measurementscomprises reference signal received power.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the apparatus is a gNodeB.
 8. An apparatus for wirelesscommunication, the apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memorycoupled with the processor, the memory storing executable instructionsthat when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuateoperations comprising: communicating with a network node via a firstbeam, the first beam configured as a serving beam; performingmeasurements on a plurality of beams including the first beam and asecond beam based on the beam reference signals, the second beam notconfigured as a serving beam; transmitting a feedback based on themeasurements on the plurality of beams; receiving a beamaddition/release command in medium access control—control element(MAC-CE) from the network node, the beam addition/release commandcomprising a plurality of bit fields, each bit field of the plurality ofbit fields set to 1 or 0 which denotes addition or release of acorresponding beam; and controlling addition or release of one or morebeams to or from the set of serving beams based on the beamaddition/release command.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, the operationsfurther comprising reporting the measurements to the network node. 10.The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second beam is a candidate beam.11. The apparatus of claim 8, the operations further comprising based ona measurement reaching a threshold, reporting the measurement to thenetwork node.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the measurementscomprises reference signal received power.
 13. The apparatus of claim 8,the operations further comprising monitoring a serving beam forscheduling assignments.
 14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein theapparatus is a user equipment (UE).
 15. A computer readable storagemedium, which is not a signal per se, storing computer executableinstructions that when executed by a computing device cause saidcomputing device to effectuate operations comprising: communicating witha network node via a first beam, the first beam configured as a servingbeam; performing measurements on a plurality of beams including thefirst beam and a second beam based on the beam reference signals, thesecond beam not configured in the set of serving beams; transmitting afeedback based on the measurements on the plurality of beams; receivinga beam addition/release command in medium access control—control element(MAC-CE) from the network node, the beam addition/release commandcomprising a plurality of bit fields, each bit field of the plurality ofbit fields set to 1 or 0 which denotes addition or release of acorresponding beam; and controlling addition or release of one or morebeams to or from the set of serving beams based on the beamaddition/release command.
 16. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 15, the operations further comprising reporting the measurementsto the network node.
 17. The computer readable storage medium of claim15, wherein the second beam is a candidate beam.
 18. The computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, the operations further comprisingbased on a measurement reaching a threshold, reporting the measurementto the network node.
 19. The computer readable storage medium of claim15, wherein the measurements comprises reference signal received power.20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the operationsfurther comprising monitoring a serving beam for scheduling assignments.